#IRAS

Here is my attempt at the IRAS satellite. Constructed at Hollandse Signaalapparaten which
was my first employer. Though I was coding real time operating systems at the time, rather
than building telescopes, it still feels like a great thing to at to KSP.

## History

![alt text](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/IRAS_in_orbit.jpg "IRAS in Orbit")

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) was the first-ever space telescope to perform a
survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. The telescope was a joint project
of the United States (NASA), the Netherlands (NIVR), and the United Kingdom (SERC).
Over 250,000 infrared sources were observed at 12, 25, 60, and 100 micrometer wavelengths.

IRAS performed the first "all sky Survey "out in the infrared part of the spectrum. T
he results was made the first celestial atlas of infrared radiation sources.

The project was a collaborative effort between the United States, the Netherlands and
the United Kingdom. The US contribution was coordinated from the US space agency NASA,
which provided the design and development of the telescope, with the main contractor
company Ball Aerospace of Boulder in Colorado. The detailed elaboration of the received
scientific data was provided by NASA's JPL.

The Dutch contribution was coordinated by the Dutch space agency NIVR, which arranged the
delivery of the actual spacecraft, the assembly and testing of the entire satellite and
flight operations. Main contractors for the Dutch side were Fokker Space and
Hollandse Signaalapparaten which was actually my first employer.

They were supported by the NLR, which was responsible for the application of the flight
software, testing of the integrated satellite and execution of flight operations.
The British contribution was coordinated by the Science and Engineering Research Council
(SERC), which was responsible for setting up the base system needed to monitor the
satellite and the initial impact of the received scientific data. Main contractor
for this was the UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton in Oxfordshire.

IRAS had on board a Ritchey-Chrétien-telescope with mirrors of beryllium because of the
low operating temperature of 4 K. The primary mirror had a diameter of 57 cm and a
composite focal length of 5.5 m. The low operating temperature of a few degrees
above the absolute zero (-273.15 degrees Celsius) was necessary in order to be able to
observe the weak sources of infrared radiation from the universe. The telescope was
not cooled to such low temperatures, they would be blinded by its own heat radiation.
The cooling was carried out by placing the whole telescope, including detectors, in a
Dewar flask that was filled with 475 liters of liquid helium. The telescope was
screened in several ways from other sources of heat such as the Sun and the Earth.

The view direction was perpendicular to the Sun and Earth, where the solar panels
IRAs fulfilled a dual role as a sunscreen for the dewar. A large lens hood in the form
of a bevelled cone prevented that stray light would end up in the telescope.
Finally, the space vehicle itself was with multiple layers of insulating material
separate from the telescope.

All of these measures were found to be very effective, allowing IRAS reached a sensitivity
which, in theory, it made it possible to observe the heat radiation of a
bicycle lamp at 5000 km away.

The observations were carried out with the instrument head, which consisted of 62 elements
with filters, and the Dutch DAX-instrument (Dutch Additional experiment) with a
spectrometer and photometer. Both used wavelengths of 12, 25, 60 and 100 micrometers
for observation. In order to contamination of the detector to prevent dust was drawn
dewar vacuum and hermetically sealed with a lid. A few days after the launch this
cover was shot and started with IRAS observations.

The main instrument were eventually detected more than 350,000 individual sources such
as stars, galaxies, interstellar dust and some unknown objects with an accuracy
of 20 arc seconds. In addition, some thousands of objects were subjected to a
detailed inspection with the aid of the Dutch-DAX instrument. The detectors operating
temperature was 2 K or 2 degrees above absolute zero. The observations generated
more than 100 megabytes (MB) of information per day, which was temporarily stored
in two data recorders on board the satellite. Once every twelve hours IRAs passed
on the ground in Britain and became the stored data 'dumped' at a rate of 1 million
bits per second. After the data dump was the observation program for the next 12 hours
sent to the satellite and stored in the onboard computer. IRAs conducted his
observations fully automated and independent.

**Forum Links:**
Original link: [todo]

##Mod Support:

* CTT
* Bluedog Design Bureau
* TarsierSpaceTech

##INSTALL:

Unzip into your main KSP folder, delete old versions before that. Have module manager already installed.

##CONTENTS:

* IRAS Telescope
* IRAS Solar Panels

##Experiments:

* Expose mirror to heat sources

##NOTES:

* No known issues

##PICTURES:

todo

##CREDITS:

* MacLuky with lots of tips from the forum. Could not have done it without the help

##LICENSE

![alt tag](https://licensebuttons.net/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
